I'm working my way through the Introduction Manual for the 737 and have noted the best start up scenario is the Ultralight over Friday Harbor (the FSX default start up). From there the manual says you can load a flight using the 737.

 

My question is, do you/should you actually hit "Fly Now" with the Trike and THEN load your 737 and location for your flight, or is it enough to simply have the Trike over Friday Harbor as the start but you don't have to actually go right into that flight before you start setting up your own scenario (I'm not sure how much initialization of FS' systems is done at the initial start up screen)?

 

Thanks very much.

I've for some reason have not had any issues with my setup installed the day the NGX came out with saving a flight with the NGX as the default flight. Save/Load your panel state as "LAST". Then save your flight whatever you choose to name it.

You don't have to hit FLY NOW. The default flight loads the aircraft model before then, so the beneficial aspect of this has already taken place. Ideally, you need a FSX default piston engined aircraft in your default flight (I use the Cessna 172). It doesn't have to be at Friday Harbor either, it can be your local airport, in fact it's better to be there to avoid FSX local time issues.

 

As for having the NGX as your default flight, that might work OK if you only ever intend to fly the NGX. If you want to load another complex addon instead then this might well get messed up by being loaded after the NGX.

Thanks Clarke. Yeah, I've never had an issue doing that with other machines, but I'm new to PMDG so figured I'd go by the book to start (saves troubleshooting my own idiocy <LOL>). However, yes, I'll give it a try. Right now I'm flying the J41, so I'm hoping I can do the same with it. It'll be a few weeks before I get into the 737 as I do like to read all the manuals once at the very least before I step into the airplane, then on the second read through I just sit in the cockpit and mentally go through the routine. Then I'll try flying it. It's a routine I developed IRL and I like to follow through with it here. Helps the immersion factor :).

 

I'll try your method and if I run into any issues, I can always delete the saved flight and go back to the default Trike one if necessary. Thanks much Clarke, appreciate the input.

 

Glenn Davy

 

Yeah, that's a good point I hadn't thought of Kevin (loading another complex addon). That could happen if I go from the J41 to the 737. I do recall reading that in the manual as well.

 

OK, I'll amend the above to start with the 172 at my home airport. That's what I've been doing with the J41 and so far it's worked fine. Thanks much Kevin!

 

Glenn Davy

I’ve got the PMDG 737, and I can set up my aircraft how I like it, panels, camera views, switches, plan, and save a flight file for it. I can always load it later and the cameras all set up, paused, etc.

 

Then I can:

1. Start FSX from the desktop icon, and load the file in the free flight page.

2. Right click on it in Explorer and choose "Open with..." and select FSX.

 

It is best to keep a default flight file of a stock aircraft.

 

Sometimes an add-on aircraft may be uninstalled, or another issue of the add-on’s complexity, perhaps a software update, may cause an unexpected issue when loading, and you can get locked out of starting FSX until you have replaced the default flight file.

 

Saving a flight with an FSX stock aircraft at your local airport is a good idea. The main thing is to avoid add-ons for the default flight file.

 

When you start FSX, it always tries to load something. When FSX is started it always loads the default flight, unless you open an .FLT file in Explorer (with the FSX file association).

 

When you choose a file in Explorer and "Open with…" - FSX, the default flight will not be loaded first, your flight file will temporarily replace the default flight for that start-up.

 

If you want to put the original default flight back, it's in the folder: progs\fsx\Flight\Other.

 

If the flight file you load in FSX, or open in Explorer with FSX came from your aircraft then it should load OK from its save file. In other words there is no requirement to have some kind of aircraft loaded first, before loading your complex add-on.

Thanks Steve, much appreciated. Yeah, I do always save my flights with the 172 as the default aircraft. I just read that PMDG recommends starting with the Trike, and if I do run into any issues, I'll certainly revert to that. But the consensus seems to be that you are fine loading a saved flight as long as your saved flight is a default a/c. I have loaded a flight with the aircraft failing to initialize because I disabled it before (duhh :D), but it just loads with the trike in that event. I always start from the icon though and go to free flight as I have it set to run as admin (even so, I have FSX installed to a different drive so it's not under Programs).

 

Sounds like I'm good to go. Appreciate the help folks. Back to the books <LOL>.

When I first saw this type of recommendation with 'complex' aircraft add ons, I must admit that I actually go a step further and will load the default Ultralight to the actual gate of my chosen departure airport, let the sim stabilise for a few seconds and then choose my actual aircraft model from 'select aircraft' in the top menu. I read somewhere im sure that the key is to get MS FSX base panel loaded before the add on aircraft panel?

 

Not sure if this is overkill, probably adds a minute or two on to the experience i guess?

 

Nigel Thomas

UK

I am fully with Steve.

 

This tweak could be supportive as well:

To get rid of this irritating short hang-up, one can include the following line in the [Main] section of fsx.CFG to suppress the preloading:

 

[Main]

DisablePreload=1